Spreadsheet applications, such as Microsoft® Excel often present a tremendous amount of data to a user. In order to distill this large volume of information, a conditional formatting capability is provided in some conventional spreadsheet programs. Conditional formatting is one of the more accessible visualization concepts for users (spreadsheet users). It is easily accessible and users can use such conditional formatting to visually annotate their data for both analytical and presentation purposes.
However, current conditional formatting functionality is limited in use. It is not widely used by users because it is not easily accessed and can be difficult to use. Typically the user must author a complex conditional formula that returns true or false, a task that is beyond the average spreadsheet user. Some products offer a user interface for creating conditions without requiring a formula, but these are limited to just a few types of expressions, and do not come close to covering the full range of conditions that users want to apply to their data, such as comparison to the average, top/bottom ranking, time periods, etc. Further, conditional formatting in current products is usually limited to Boolean expressions and a single format (if the condition is true for a given data point, apply the format; if it is false, do not apply the format). Finally, the rules must be applied in order to see the results of application of the rule. This can be frustrating to a user if he or she doesn't already know the desired effect a specific conditional format will have on the data.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.